ABSTRACT

Although the European Union (EU) has traditionally followed the US lead in the multilateral trade field, a possible harbinger of change in that situation was the EU's initiative in salvaging an interim multilateral financial services liberalization agreement in the World Trade Organization (WTO) in mid-1995 after the United States had withdrawn its support. However, the EU has moved gradually in the direction of policy coordination and, on occasion, common positions and joint actions. In areas such as Haiti and Rwanda, where international aid efforts have been mounted to address urgent problems, the United States has carried on a dialogue with the EU in an effort to improve the coordination of operational policies. The nature and intensity of interaction between the EU and the United States on security issues was altered by the introduction of a security role for the EU in the Maastricht Treaty and the end of the Cold War.